Looks Like They've Found Out Who Jack The Ripper Really Was...

[kvalidir]

This is incredible imho.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2746321/Jack-Ripper-unmasked-How-amateur-sleuth-used-DNA-breakthrough-identify-Britains-notorious-criminal-126-years-string-terrible-murders.html

[grasscarp]

Agchristie have you read the complete article and the credentials of the person who did the DNA testing?

[douglas9401]

Not so easy when one doesn't know of it's existence yet though, Canary 42.

[agchristie]

Grasscarp, yes I did. World renowned. That's as maybe but he doesn't explain how the DNA of the suspect came into contact with the deceased.

[Canary42]

Sorry, my answer was badly worded. I didn't intend for one minute to suggest DNA was planted per se , I meant it is easy to plant an item which has been in contact with or worn by or belonging to another person.

The planter may have (erroneously apparently) expected the item to be identified positively as having been in possession of the plantee by one or more witnesses.

[grasscarp]

It does explain all about his DNA being on it in his semen. He got a sexual thrill out of these killings, which ended when he went into a mental hospital.

[agchristie]

The Dr. asserts that everything that 'can possibly be done'....

Does that reach the threshold of 'beyond reasonable doubt'?

[janbee]

It was in The Mail? Oh well, in that case it must be true !!

[janbee]

So, the saying, bl***y foreigners, applied then too?

[janbee]

It wasn't me Guv... honest !
I saw the programme about Walter Sickert. Patricia Cornwell put forward a very good case against him. The police said it was DEFINITELY not him. They also said it was definitely NOT one of Victoria's lot . An Australian man has also been named and the case against him looks pretty solid too, but again, the police say it is definitely NOT him. This can only mean that the police do actually KNOW who it was, but for some reason are not allowed to say, , even after all this time. To be so adamant as to say DEFINITELY who it wasn't means that they KNOW who it DEFINITELY was. Why can't we be told? Somebody alive today is obviously a relative of that person .In that case, I still think it's a royal prince/duke whatever and a relative of our current monarch.

[Brinjal]

The NZ herald is also carrying the story.

[mikey4444]

I will wait until its on the BBC before I fully believe this !

[grasscarp]

Also in the Daily Mirror and the Guardian

[kvalidir]

I think the evidence in this instance is very compelling and certainly I think beyond probable doubt his identity is correct. It's over 120 years since the last killing and I think the DNA work they managed to achieve is outstanding.

1. The Shawl had a Michaelmas Daisies motif and almost certainly did not belong to Catherine Eddowes herself.
2. She was killed On the Western Church's Michaelmas Day.
3. The final victim was killed on the Eastern church's Michaelmas Day.
4. The Shawl itself was not locally made, it came from Eastern Europe.
5. It contained arterial blood and splatter patterns suggesting it was present at the time of the killing and Semen from Aaron Kosminski.
6. The blood has been DNA identified as being that of Catherine Eddowes.
7. The Semen was identified as Aaron Kosminskis
8. There were no further murders after he was committed.
9. There was a positive identification of him at the time by another Jew who could not testify against another Jew.
10. The Police saw fit to have him followed until he was committed.

I will be interested to see if any specimens of his handwriting survive from his admissions to workhouses and asylums which might compare to any of the notes written to the police.
Anyway I think it's about the most interesting thing that's happened this year :)

[ummmm]

Very interesting.

[mrs_overall]

I know beggars couldn't be choosers, but that is one hideous shawl

[tamborine]

Dont whinge over your haircut.....

[jomifl]

The victim presumably had never visited a hairdresser?

[Mick-the-Miller]

Sensationalist rubbish - I don't believe a word of it!

[Kromovaracun]

"I will be interested to see if any specimens of his handwriting survive from his admissions to workhouses and asylums which might compare to any of the notes written to the police. "

The notes have long been considered a hoax - very few people belive any of them were genuinely written by the killer.

Overall, we can't claim this as fact yet, because these people have not published their exact methodology - we know they had samples of DNA from both Kosminski and Eddowes in the same lab, and it is entirely possible that through bad lab practice they could have cross-contaminated their evidence. Until we know they took appropriate measures to stop that, we can't know for sure.

However, this is a very, very real possibility. Kosminski was a leading suspect at the time, has long been since, was named the most likely by FBI profilers and (as kvalidir says), the murders stopped after he was committed. It's entirely possible that the Ripper case has now been solved.

[joggerjayne]

So it was the Polish immigrant?

So he might've murdered you but, on the plus side, he could fix your plumbing.

ps. 126 year old semen? Eeuuww!